Printed publications such as books, magazines, periodicals, etc., are manufactured in a variety of ways. One method of manufacturing a printed publication, especially a large printed publication, is to print several pages of the publication onto a large sheet, and then fold the sheet into consecutive pages forming one portion of the overall publication This folded sheet of pages is known in the publication manufacturing art as a signature. A plurality of different signatures are joined together to form the complete publication.
Depending upon the size of the publication and the machines used to print and fold the signatures, several sheets of material can be used in each signature. For example, signatures constructed of four sheets can be printed on four separate, continuous webs of sheet material, and then folded and cut into a plurality of signatures. Currently, it is known to create signatures with 16 pages per sheet. Thus, a signature constructed of four sheets can have 64 pages.
If signatures with 64 pages were used to make a publication having a total of 960 pages, then 15 signatures would have to be assembled to create the publication. Such a publication would require 15 stations for combining the 15 signatures. Of course, a publication with more pages would require more stations. Accordingly, large publications result in a very large assembly line, which requires substantial floor space and many machines as well as operators to assemble the publication.
In view of the above, there clearly exists a need for creating a signature with a high page count. This invention addresses this need in the art as well as other needs in the art, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.